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There is danger that we lose sight of what our friend is absolutely, while considering what she is to us alone. – Henry David Thoreau

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Chapter Seven: Realizations & Warnings

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Seunghyun woke up dazed and confused, his torso bandaged tightly under the white sheets of this new bed and the sight of an unfamiliar ceiling. Flicking his eyes around him, he spotted a glass of water on the bedside table and reached for it, wincing all the while at how his skin pulled under the bandages. Evenutally, his trembling hand grasped the glass and he propped himself on his elbow to down it all.

Placing the glass back on the table, Seunghyun blinked and looked around him. There was a curtain pulled around his cot and he realized he was in a hospital. His memories were hazy of his transformation, but the bandages told him one thing that he most feared: he’d gotten hurt probably trying to hurt someone else.

Suddenly, Seunghyun wanted to vomit. He clutched at his throat and tried to breathe, the anxiety storming up his esophagus as he desperately attempted to recall the night. Okay, okay – breathe, Seunghyun.

Slowly, carefully, he remembered the sight of the shed’s doors closing on him and him wolf’ing out. After that, the wolf part of his brain had taken over and he remembered the smell of Jiyong and mountain ash and aconite and fresh cut grass and the warm soil of the forest. His claws had grasped the ground and he had sprung off somewhere, sprinting into the heavy humidity of the trees. There had been more smells, more sounds though.

Seunghyun frowned, trying to concentrate despite the pain in his side. More smells – smells of blood, of deodorant, of sweat. Human scents. The urge to vomit reappeared but he clenched his jaw. Focus. Focus. Then something else – something like fur and spit and musk. Animal scents. And… And… the feeling of claws and teeth ripping through his side – Seunghyun cried out as the sensory cut through him again.

Something had attacked him. Another animal. A predator. But it wasn’t his own blood he smelled. It was someone else’s blood – someone human. Seunghyun’s eyes widened. Jiyong was there. Jiyong had closed the door on him. Jiyong had opened the door on him – maybe accidentally – and maybe he was injured now, maybe he was bleeding and where, where was Jiyong?

Seunghyun tore off the sheet from his torso before he realized he was shirtless and quickly balled the fabric around his bare skin, unwilling to be exposed. With limping steps, he peeked past the white curtain. There was an empty cot beside his, but the one after that also had a curtain pulled around it.

Steadily, Seunghyun approached the bed and pulled back the curtain only to be confronted with the pale, bloodless face of Seungri lying in the cot.

“Oh. Oh god.” Seunghyun bit his knuckle, his other hand shakingly grabbing the back of a visitor’s chair and sitting down in it to stay by Seungri. “Oh god. Oh god.”

With that, Seunghyun felt his eyes burn and he was crying for the first time in years, letting his anxiety and guilt pour out of him. Slowly, he laid his head on the cot beside Seungri’s hand and sobbed quietly. It wasn’t long before he fell asleep.

-

“It was a wolf bite,” said Dr. Hyori, hands on her desk as Jiyong and Youngbae and Daesung stood in front of her. “I need you to tell me everything so I can properly identify who bit him and treat him accordingly. Wolf bites are… difficult unless you know what you’re dealing with.”

Jiyong shared a glance with Youngbae and nodded slightly. Youngbae understood. He stepped forward and – in fifteen minutes or so – recapped their adventures of last night. Daesung helped supply some extraneous details. Jiyong stayed silent.

Hyori cocked her head, long fingers tapping on the desk in thought. “There’s two werewolves at Kongnamul then?”

“We only know about Seunghyun,” replied Youngbae.

“That complicates things.” She frowned. “Jiyong,” here, Jiyong jerked his head up in surprise at the acknowledgement. Hyori continued: “You said that Seunghyun attacked you in the conservation but he backed off once he heard the other wolf’s howl?”

“Sort of.” Jiyong played with the edges of his sleeves as he recalled the events. “We were protected by the mountain ash, so Seunghyun was already sort of backing off, but yeah. He heard another howl and I think he ran towards that other wolf and howled back.”

“But then there was that awful scream,” murmured Daesung. “Before Seungri was attacked, I think the wolves might’ve attacked each other, and Seunghyun lost, and the other wolf hurt Seungri for some reason.”

“It’s true that Seungri has the exact same pattern of bite marks in his side too,” agreed Hyori. “The other wolf, then… Seunghyun is only seventeen – that means on the werewolf hierarchy he’s, at best, a beta. Personally, I think he might just be an omega.”

Jiyong scrunched up his brow. “So, the other wolf was higher on the hierarchy to defeat Seunghyun?”

“Yes. I think we might have an alpha on our hands.” Hyori slid a file to the centre of her desk and opened up to reveal a picture of Seungri’s smilling school photo on top of his medical report. “And I think this alpha is trying to recruit new members.”

-

When Seunghyun woke up again, he was just as thirsty and his back ached from being hunched over. Raising his head up, the memories of what he knew came rushing back into him and it took all the effort in the world not to burst into fresh tears. Instead, he clenched his jaw and steeled himself to look at Seungri.

Seungri was awake this time, propped up against the headboard of his cot with a few pillows. His ran his fingers gently over Seunghyun’s scalp and Seunghyun let him, too exhausted to care about such soft touches.

“Yo,” greeted Seungri, his voice scratchy. “Lucky we don’t have concussions too. I’m really scared of concussions. You can lose so many brain cells. I don’t ever want a concussion.”

“Say concussion again, I dare you,” retorted Seunghyun, his voice equally rough.

“Concussion,” grinned Seungri. Brat.

“You’re in the hospital too,” said Seunghyun lamely. “I…” He took a deep breath. “I hurt you.”

Seungri ran his hands through Seunghyun’s hair again and Seunghyun realized it was a relaxing method of his – he was touching something warm and alive to reassure himself that he was also warm and alive. It made the guilt rise some more.

Except: “You didn’t hurt me. Another wolf did. A bigger one. Black furred. You’re brown.”

“…What?” asked Seunghyun belatedly, trying to process the information. “There’s another werewolf?” The words nudged something in his hazy memories. Howling, that musky, familiar scent, blood.

“You have bandages on the same part of you as me,” pointed out the other. “I’m going to guess that we were both bitten by the same wolf. Except you’re already wolf, why would he want to do that with you? With me, it’s obvious…” He gave a pained smile. “I guess I always did want to be special but this…”

“The other wolf bit you?” Seunghyun’s eyes went wide. “You’re going to change. Like me.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I guess I am.” A beat and Seungri’s face crumpled. He began to cry, hiccupping, face flushed, and he looked so young and childlike in that moment. “I don’t want to be a werewolf, I don’t, I don’t.”

“Seungri,” tried Seunghyun, reaching out to hold his hand, tangle their fingers together in reassurance. “It’s okay, It’s not too late. You still have time till the next full moon. We can reverse it.” I think. I don’t actually know. Seunghyun couldn’t break it to him, not yet. Normalcy was underrated until it was too late.

-

“What about Seunghyun? There’s no point in biting him. He’s already wolf,” pointed out Youngbae reasonably.

“Yes, but he’s been marked this time. The alpha wants Seunghyun in the pack now, and he’s made a claim to it. The bite has the added effect that Seunghyun might be elevated from omega to beta status now,” said Hyori.

“So, he’s going to get stronger, but he’s going to be tied down to an alpha who just mindlessly tore into him?” Jiyong was disgusted. “A wolf pack is family, not torture.”

Hyori gave him a tight-lipped smile: “Sometimes they’re one and the same.”

“We need to kill it,” snarled Jiyong. “It hurt both Seunghyun and Seungri. If we find it and kill it, the bite effects will disappear.”

“And where are you going to find it, when you’re a half-fledgling, Youngbae still in training, and only Daesung here in any full control of some of his powers? You’re seventeen.”

“Then you do it. Gather some teachers and finish it off.”

Hyori shook her head. “They’re trying to track the alpha right now, but a werewolf is part wolf, part man. We can either sense one or the other, and there’s no way to link appearance or scent to both. We’ve tracked the wolf scent as far as we can with Seunghyun and Seungri’s clothing, but we can’t find the human scent.”

“So what should we do? There’s a crazy, killer alpha werewolf running around biting students!” exclaimed Youngbae.

“What you need to do is continue on with your regular lives and go to classes and grow stronger. You can go ahead and fight the alpha, but what’s the point if you can’t even control your own powers in order not to hurt yourselves?” Hyori looked at all three of them. “Let me heal your friends, what you need to do now is get better so you can protect them if this ever happens again and there’s none of us in Kongnamul to help. That’s what you should do.”

Daesung took Youngbae’s wrist gently, tugging him back. “C’mon, Dr. Hyori has a point.”

“But – !” Youngbae protested, and Jiyong had his other arm in a tight grasp.

“She has a point. You couldn’t heal them, Bae, and I couldn’t fight any of them off, and Daesung couldn’t use his powers on them since he doesn’t know them all yet. We’re pretty useless right now.”

His voice was flat, and Youngbae sensed his friend’s distress and guilt. Without a sound, he bowed to Hyori and let his friends and him out of the doctor’s office.

-

Seunghyun woke for the third time in the hospital, this time with Seungri’s arm thrown around Seunghyun’s shoulders as if drawing him into a hug. When his head nudged upwards, Seungri also fluttered his still damp eyelashes open. They both straightened up at the sound of swift footsteps quickly approaching them. Without thinking, Seunghyun stood beside the bed, mouth twisted in a snarl because he couldn’t protect his friends before, he could still try now.

When the curtain was drawn back, a woman in a lab coat and hair in a long ponytail appeared. She was very beautiful but Seunghyun took no chances. He let his voice growl low in his throat in warning. He might not be able to wolf out again after the full moon, but the wolf hormones were still running high in his bloodstream.

“I’m Dr. Lee Hyori, and I’ll be taking care of you two today.” Her voice was even and professional. Seunghyun felt his muscles relax and Seungri tugged at his arm in reassurance.

“S’alright,” he murmured. Seunghyun sat back down on the chair.

“Both of you were bitten by – what we’ve concluded – an alpha,” she started. Quickly, she explained her deductions and the treatment plan for such a bite. “But first, I’ll need a blood sample to test for wolf hormones. To see if Seunghyun is a beta now, and Seungri an omega.”

“Okay,” relented Seunghyun, and Seungri nodded.

“You’re on bedrest for a week. I’ll have you excused for classes, you can either rest here or go back to your dorms and report back to me at lunch time every day until next Friday.”

“Dorms,” they both replied, and Hyori nodded.

-

Two sick people helping each other limp back to the dorms was not one of the smartest things Seunghyun has done. Seungri was still morose, but at least he had stopped crying, which was a good sign. They waved goodbye as they both unlocked their respective dorm doors.

Seunghyun was dressed in loose pajamas and a long-sleeve shirt from the hospital wing and he figured they were clean and comfortable enough to sleep in once he finally shut his door and stumbled towards his bed, his eyes on nothing else.

Collapsing on his covers, he muffled a groan of pain into his pillow. Suddenly, a voice was at his ear: “Seunghyun,” and Seunghyun almost screeched in surprise, pulling his face back quickly and knocking his nose against Jiyong’s chin with how close their faces were.

“Ji,” replied Seunghyun and – immediately – his eyes were trailing down the other’s body, trying to find any signs of injuries on him. “You’re okay.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m good,” Jiyong agreed quietly, “what about you?”

Seunghyun scooted backwards to get some space and Jiyong slipped onto the bed beside him, lying on his side to stare at Seunghyun. He was too tired to even discuss personal space boundaries with his roommate when there was a bite in his torso. Instead, he collapsed on his side too, staring into the eyes of Jiyong and smiling weakly. “I’m getting an upgrade.”

“To a beta, Hyori told me,” he said.

“And Seungri’s not a normal human anymore.”

“What he always wanted, I suppose.”

“And I was really worried about you.”

“Me too,” whispered Jiyong. His face scrunched together, eyes getting wetter. “I’m so sorry. It’s all my fault. This never would have happened if I hadn’t opened the shed doors, if I hadn’t looked at you, and I – just – I , I’m so sorry.”

Seunghyun blinked tiredly, a half-smile on his mouth. He reached over and ran his fingers over the long stream of the other’s hair, letting it rest tangled in the blue colouring at the tips. ‘You also came looking for me and tried to protect Seungri and me. It’s not your fault there’s an alpha. He was bound to get us one day.”

“Why you, though? Why did it have to be you?”

The other shrugged, still playing with the ends of Jiyong’s hair. It was just as soft as it looked. “It’s too late to think about that. It was me. It was Seungri. It’s time to figure out a way to fix it.”

“I don’t know how,” admitted Jiyong. Seunghyun nodded. “Me neither.”

They both stared at each other, Seunghyun eyelids already drooping with sleep, and Jiyong still looking anxious. Eventually, Seunghyun felt himself muffle a yawn: “I’m going to fall asleep on you.”

“That’s okay,” replied Jiyong. “I’ll still be here.”

“Gonna protect me?” joked the other weakly. “You’re not human anyway, so I guess that’s good.”

“Go to sleep.” With that, Seunghyun nodded and closed his eyes, curling his hands towards his torso as he drifted off. Jiyong ran a hand down his face in anxiety. He had to protect Seunghyun somehow, and that meant to stay in school and get stronger, faster, and stop lying. The fact of the matter was he was still half-human, still half-compatible with the world.

Slowly, Jiyong ran a hand through Seunghyun’s dark hair, as sweaty and gross as it was, but he didn’t care, because Seunghyun was alive. Seunghyun was still here, and Jiyong was going to rip this alpha’s throat out with his teeth,

-

The week passed by in a haze of sleepiness, force feeding via Jiyong, and visits to Hyori for the daily checkup on his health. Seunghyun tried to keep up with his school, propping himself up on four pillows with a notebook in his lap, but it didn’t seem like any use. His parents had been informed and they called him everyday worried out of their minds. Still, Seunghyun didn’t want to leave Kongnamul. The alpha was outside, not inside. Seunghyun was safe here. At least, he hoped so.

At the end of the week, he met with the Headmaster again and had a swift debrief on Seunghyun’s changed status to a ‘special student’ with extra classes added to his curriculum. Now that Seunghyun’s powers were going to get stronger, it was necessary to learn it and control it and – best yet – protect himself.

Youngbae, Seungri, and Daesung also visited him at his dorm in between their classes to check up on his health and help him out with anything. Seunghyun felt his heart warm at their concern until Jiyong was viciously hissing and shooing them away.

“They’re just being concerned friends, y’know,” laughed Seunghyun after one such incident.

“They’re being nuisances. You got me to help you out, you know that,” snapped Jiyong, flopping back onto his own bed, back turned towards Seunghyun. He was sulking.

“You haven’t been going to any classes except your after lunch time ones,” said Seunghyun.

“Because those are the only ones that matter.”

“What are you trying to do, Jiyong?”

There was a pause before a muffled: “get stronger.”

“And for what exactly?” Though Seunghyun had a sneaking suspicion.

Jiyong sat up, glaring at him. His hair was dyed a bright red today. “My friends are weak. Youngbae is still a human, even if he dabbles in other stuff, Seungri is now a weak werewolf fledgling or something, and only Daesung might be able to take me in a fight right now. But that’s not enough that I’m stronger than you all. I – I need to be stronger for you all. I need to be stronger to protect you all so we can still be together, even when terrible stuff like alphas happen.”

He began to flush in embarrassment over the confession and soon was diving back into the covers of his bed, refusing to look up, even when Seunghyun spoke: “Not everything has to be on you, Jiyong. You can’t be the leader all the time. You need to share the responsibilities too.”

Still, Jiyong refused to look at him until dinner time, at which he snapped up a, “stay in the bed and I’ll bring you something,” and stomped out of the dorm.

-

It was two weeks later when Hyori called in both Seunghyun and Seungri into her office with news.

“The blood test results were a bit delayed but they came back,” she began, “the alpha bite on Seunghyun will leave permanent scarring and some remnants of power into him. You’ve been promoted to a beta in the pack.”

Seunghyun smiled tightly. “Great.”

“As for Seungri,” here, Hyori hesitated. “You’ve been healing nicely, and the wound will also leave some scarring due to how large it is. But…”

“But?” prompted Seungri.

“You,” she tapped her desk in thought, “we’ve concluded that you’re immune. We went into your family history and your family actually has a long line of interesting bloodlines filtering in and out through the generations.”

“I – I was formally invited to the school,” mentioned Seungri, “but, I’m immune?”

“If we extrapolate the data of your family’s history and bloodline, then you are immune to not only wolf bites, but vampire bites, and ghoul possessions, and succubus hauntings, and witchcraft and a host of other supernatural things. Basically, you’re a human who can’t be affected through many magical means. You can still die if a witch snapped your neck or stabbed you, but a curse wouldn’t be any use on you.”

“So, I’m not… I’m not an omega wolf. I’m still normal. Still human.”

“Well. Normalcy is such a tricky word,” remarked Hyori. “But yes, you’re still – essentially, physiologically – a human.”

“That’s… That’s great news,” said Seunghyun. He turned towards Seungri, who was grinning widely, tears streaking down his cheeks.

“Thank god, thank god,” blurted Seungri. Hyori smiled at him.

“That being said, I have mentioned to the Headmaster for you to take another class.”

“Another class?”

“Your friends are working hard to get better, faster, stronger – but you, Seungri, you’re the brains of the operation, aren’t you?” Hyori cocked her head, watching him.

“I just… know some stuff.”

“I want you to know more stuff, Seungri. I want you to educate yourself as much as you can – physical strength is nothing if you don’t know where, when, and why to apply it.”

“She’s right,” added Seunghyun, “you knew about the mountain ash, the aconite. Only I know that, and that’s ‘cause I’m werewolf.”

Seungri chewed his bottom lip. “Okay. Okay, I’ll do it. I’ll work hard too.”

Hyori smiled brightly. “I’m glad.”

-

Soon, September was left behind entirely. Seunghyun went back to his classes, focusing more on catching up than hanging out with his friends. He wanted to stay in Kongnamul, and having decent grades meant he could, even if it made him frown whenever he shot down another opportunity to socialize with the other four.

Still, Jiyong talked to him in the night time, recounting the day’s stories and sharing what he’d been up to in his normal classes, complaining about other students and teachers, making vague references to that upcoming talent show thing that Seungri had once mentioned earlier, and other such miscellaneous talks.

Seunghyun also had been assigned a mentor – but in writing only. The Headmaster was looking for another werewolf to teach Seunghyun what they knew so that Seunghyun was better prepared for the future. His ‘special classes’ woudn’t start until he had someone to teach him the ways of his own people. Idly, he wondered if Jiyong and the others had mentors. Probably. Still, the fact that the Headmaster had to go out and find one meant that no other werewolf was in this school except Seunghyun, or else this would have been done by now.

The alpha wasn’t in Kongnamul, but they were outside. Whatever werewolf brought into Kongnamul would either be an ally or Seunghyun’s worst enemy, and he had hopes that it was the former.

When the full moon approached mid-October, it was under the strict supervision of Hyori, the Headmaster, and Professor Kyuhyun. Why the math professor was there, Seunghyun had no idea, but he stood by and watched as both Hyori and Kyuhyun made the circle of mountain ash, scattered the purple aconite petals around it and made Seunghyun step inside of it fifteen minutes before midnight.

It wasn’t the wooden shed this time, but the annex gymnasium. It was half the size of the regular gymnasium with the usual lines painted on the wooden floor and the walls plastered with award posters and motivational athletic posters. The ceilings were high and the windows cast the outside glow of the moon in shades of gray through the space.

Seunghyun watched as the three others walked to the entrance of the gymnasium, counting down the minutes.

“We’re gonna lock the doors the moment you wolf out,” said Kyuhyun, holding up a ring of keys. “All other doors have been locked. If you somehow escape of the circle again, the walls have been reinforced against the supernatural. Go wild.”

“I’ll try not to,” replied Seunghyun.

“Good luck,” said the Headmaster and Hyori gave a wave as the clock struck midnight.

That night, he had rested in his circle as there was nothing in the gym to break the line of mountain ash and there were no incidents except the howling from inside and out. Whenever the alpha screamed throughout the night, smelling his beta wolf’ing out, Seunghyun-the-wolf felt like he had no choice but to howl back in response to alpha.

Once sunrise arrived, however, Seunghyun belated covered himself up with his clothes again and laid down on his back in exhaustion, his throat feeling raw, but otherwise – he was uninjured and so was the gym and circle of ash. Everything had gone as planned. Twenty minutes later, Hyori arrived to check up on him and brought along Kyuhyun to clean up the aconite and ash.

When Seunghyun returned to his bed, Jiyong was sitting on it, looking up at him, looking awake as if it was midday instead of just past the crack of dawn.

“You’re alright?” he asked, his long dark blue hair draped over his shoulder. Seunghyun collapsed beside him.

“Yeah. It went as usual.”

“The alpha?”

“Just howled a lot, from what I remember.”

Jiyong hummed and reached over, tracing his fingers Seunghyun’s forehead, cheeks, the arch of his nose, the curve of his chin, down his neck. Seunghyun in a breath, feeling goosebumps trail up his skin. Even if Jiyong didn’t think these simple touches were regular, they still affected Seunghyun on some level.

“Go back to bed,” said Seunghyun.

“You worried about me?”

“It’s obviously too early for you if you’re asking stupid questions,” snorted the other, rolling over to his side and getting comfortable, back turned to Jiyong.

After a beat, a weight lifted off his mattress and he heard Jiyong shuffle into his own bed, and Seunghyun fell asleep feeling relieved.

-

A few days after the full moon in October, Seunghyun finally caught a break and gathered in Daesung and Seungri’s room with junk food and Daesung’s portable DVD player. They gathered around it, hunched down to look at the small screen, with candy and popcorn spilling all over the place and watched five hours worth of movies all the while pushing and teasing and laughing with each other. It was one  of the best nights Seunghyun had ever had.

“Only you would have a portable DVD player,” chuckled Seunghyun, elbowing Daesung in the side. “So weird.”

“Movies are great!” defended Daesung before he lunged and began to tickle Seunghyun’s sides, at which it was a free for all and the movie was forgotten as the food was thrown and play fighting ensued.

-

They didn’t have time to go into town on the weekend for shopping, so for Halloween, they raided Jiyong’s surprisingly organized closet instead.

“Who are we even supposed to be?” asked Seungri as Daesung cinched a glittering waistcoat around his torso.

“I don’t know,” said Seunghyun staring at the spray painted colour of his hair. Of course Jiyong would have the weirdest hair dye in the world. Instead of the normal dark hair, Seunghyun’s face was now framed with ice-white coloured locks.

“I think it looks great,” says Daesung, patting him on the back. “Though, how’d Jiyong get you to agree to do this?”

Youngbae piped up as he fixed his bowtie, “promise for another date.”

Seunghyun sputtered, his face beginning to flush before Jiyong strided out of the bathroom clad in neon pink suit with ruffled shirtsleeves peeking out underneath the suit jacket and a cravat at the neck.

“I’m going to say no,” said Seungri.

“Same,” and “Yeah,” and “Ji, stop,” echoed through the room. Jiyong ran a hand through his hair, it was pink again, maybe to match the suit. “You’re right, it’s too much, one sec,” and he strided back into the bathroom, slamming the door shut.

Soon enough, the five of them were dressed in bright, gaudy colours with ridiculous jewellery on their hands and around their necks. Seunghyun’s hair was coiffed upwards and Jiyong managed to sneakily smear eyeshadow onto Seungri’s eyes, and only Youngbae and Daesung looked relatively unscathed though their outfits were a matching disaster.

“And now, we’re rockstars,” said Jiyong proudly with glitter in his hair.

“We’re pretty bright for people who sing about taking down the government and partying hard,” said Seunghyun.

“Powder blue suits you, Dae,” mentioned Youngbae, even if said powder blue clothes was a velvet suit, couple with flip flops at the bottom.

“Thanks!” grinned Dae, “personally, I think Seungri’s sparkling waistcoat is best.”

“Nah, Seunghyun’s hair,” said Jiyong. “I knew white would work. Now, c’mon, we have to go trick-and-treating.”

“We’re seventeen,” tried Seunghyun weakly, “aren’t we a bit…”

“As long as you have spirit, you can have fun,” said Youngbae sagely.

-

“What are you supposed to be?” sneered Changmin, hands on his hips, dressed in a white racerback tanktop and  tight, darkwashed jeans. Seunghyun squinted and thought there might’ve been eyeshadow and glitter on the kid’s eyelids.

“We’re rockstars,” replied Seungri primly, eyes narrowed. “What are you?”

Before Changmin could reply, a beautiful girl bounded up beside him, brown hair framing a wide-eyed, full-lipped face. She smoothed out her long skirt and grinned up at Seungri through long lashes.

“You look pretty dumb though,” and the girl’s voice wasn’t very girly at all.

“Junsu?” Seungri looked shocked.

Jiyong made a humming noise of contemplation. “Yeah, I definitely have better legs than you.”

Junsu rounded on him, “I have better hair than you.”

“Can we not,” said Seunghyun flatly.

Daesung agreed, “this is Halloween. It’s supposed to be dumb.”

“Would you like to go trick-or-treating with us?” asked Youngbae with his generous heart.

“I heard most profs are in the west wing,” replied Junsu, “I’m going with Changmin to the north wing first though. Prof Yunho is there and he’s always generous with the first few kids. Heard there was a scavenger hunt later.”

Jiyong nodded, “we’re going to win.”

Changmin snorted, “you wish.” He grabbed Junsu’s arm and began dragging him away down the hallway.

“No, but really, what are you supposed to be!” called out Seungri.

“Motorcycle stop hoo – “ started Junsu before he was punched in the gut by Changmin.

“I didn’t catch that,” pouted Seungri. Only Jiyong seemed to understand and he was curled over laughing.

“I’ll tell you later, let’s go, west wing, Prof Jaejoong first,” he ordered once he had recovered and strided forward.

-

The loot was substantial in the west wing, and Youngbae led them through the east wing, where their bags just got heavier and heavier with more candy, chips, pop, and sometimes petty cash and coins. They stopped by their dorms for half an hour to empty out their bags and were soon striding back out to hit up the north and south wings, as well as the towers.

Seunghyun was dizzy with fun and sugar and sprinting around like a child with his friends by the time eleven o’clock rolled around. Jiyong frowned. “The scavenger hunt starts in ten minutes. Let’s drop this off and get ready. I swear if we lose to those punks last year again – ” He snarled low in his throat.

“Who were the last year winners?” murmured Seunghyun in Daesung’s ear.

Daesung sighed, “it was a bunch of kids led by who they called ‘2min’ – these pair of kids in the north dorms: Taemin and Minho. You have to gather everything and sprint to the finish line by the baseball field, and they won by a half a minute. Jiyong is still bitter.”

“Arrogant brats,” announced Jiyong, checking his watch again. “C’mon, we’re losing precious time here.”

-

The scavenger hunt was stressful, ridiculous, and immensely fun. Jiyong was ruthless in picking everyone’s brain when they found a new item and a hint as to where to find the next one. They found a chicken egg in the history classroom, a purple sequined vest in the chemistry room, six broken pencils scattered over the gymnasium floor, a broom handle in an empty locker, and – finally – a paper mache skull hanging from the sole large oak tree beside the soccer field.

“There needs to be six items though,” snapped Jiyong, staring around the tree, but there weren’t any scraps of paper with clues on them pinned to the tree nor the item. “Where’s this clue?”

“Paper mache is paper, Ji,” said Daesung, slightly unimpressed. Jiyong paused and peered at the skull. Made of faded newsprint, it was easy to find the bold printed letters at the base of the skull that read: “one (1) weakness in the house of the always fit”.

“Always fit – so always healthy, so our gym teacher right?” said Youngbae.

“Master Hwang? His house, though?” Seungri sounded doubtful.

“Are offices open like classrooms?” asked Seunghyun, “or maybe it’s in the annex gymnasium.”

Jiyong nodded. “The office is between the gym and annex one, so we can check both. Any other ideas?”

Seungri purses his mouth. “No, that actually sounds good.”

Seunghyun glanced around him, at the empty bleachers and the darkened field. The oak seemed foreboding almost, but he could see other students out on the grass, enjoying the night, not participating in the hunt or at least had given up and chosen to occupy themselves some other way.

Still, something prickled at the back of his neck. He glanced over to his friends who were already striding across the grass to the where the gyms were. Seunghyun followed, but he couldn’t shake off the feelings. Was this… Was this the alpha? Was he back again? On Halloween?

As they burst through some brush and saw the heaving complex of the gymnasium, Jiyong tugged open the door and gestured everyone to get in. Seunghyun stopped – he had to deal with this problem now and while his friends were occupied, or else they would get hurt again.

“Ji, I need to hit the bathroom, but I’ll text you when I’m done and we’ll meet up wherever,” he said, smiling, and Jiyong didn’t even bat an eyelash, just nodded swiftly.

“Get back soon, this was your idea and you deserve the credit if we get it right, y’know.”

Somehow, the compliment seared through Seunghyun. He coughed, “you’re – yeah, okay. I – I ‘ll just be back.”

“Of course,” and Jiyong gave him a dazzling smile before he also disappeared into the gymnasium, the door shutting behind him.

With a sigh of relief, Seunghyun focused on the unsettling feeling of being watched. He took a step to the side, walking through the grass and glanced back at the increasing distance between him and Kongnamul. Up ahead were the woods. Seunghyun swallowed and still, the feeling didn’t dissipate in the least.

“Who are you?” he said out loud, “come out! I can sense you.” When there came no response, Seunghyun knew he had to let go of his humanity for a little bit, just for a minute. It was easy to slip into his wolf skin though – while the moon wasn’t full, the wolf still lived in Seunghyun, and Seunghyun let his cover slide downwards, almost like pulling off an outer layer of clothes.

Suddenly, the world came into focus, His eyesight was sharper, clearer, his hearing was pumped up and the conversations of those kids on the lawn 500 metres away was something Seunghyun could decipher. He in a breath, trying to grasp a scent of the alpha and came up with only humid earth of the forest and grass. “You can disguise your scent, can’t you? I bet you can do a lot of things, so why don’t you come out since I can’t hurt you.” Seunghyun was getting desperate. He needed to clear this up and get this alpha away, far far away from his friends.

Suddenly, the smell of wolf and musk and predator swept into the breeze and assaulted Seunghyun’s nose. He dragged in the smell and knew he was expected to trace it. Steeling himself, he turned and started striding between school and forest, approaching the shed where it started last month. Anxiously, he got closer and closer to the building, his eyesight letting him take in the rooftop and walls and the dark, smudged windows on the sides.

The alpha scent got heavier and heavier, and Seunghyun felt like he was bathing in it when he got to the front door of the shed. There was no lock of the shed this time and Seunghyun reached out, opening it and letting the moonlight spill over the equipment inside. It was empty except for the usual stuff, and Seunghyun stiffened before swiftly turning on his heel and rearing back at the sight.

Right behind him was a tall, dark-haired man, dressed in a leather jacket, shirt, and ripped jeans. He wore flip flops on his feet despite the early autumn chill of the night. He had a goodlooking face and an easy smile, hands stuffed in his pockets.

“Hello, Seunghyun,” he said and Seunghyun inhaled sharply, the heavy wolf scent slamming into his senses.

“Hi,” answered Seunghyun weakly. He took a step back, wary. “Who are you?”

The stranger blinked. “You don’t… recognize me?”

“You’re the alpha who bit me, I get it, but who are you?” Another step back. The back of his foot hit the concrete of the inside of the shed this time. Jerking away, Seunghyun side-stepped away and was back on grass, trying to put some space between him and the other.

“Are you scared of me?” asked the stranger instead. “I gave you power, Seunghyun. Why are you scared?”

“You can take it back, I really don’t need it,” reassured Seunghyun, voice getting a bit frantic. “I need you to get away from me and my friends. Leave them alone. Don’t touch them or harm them, just. Get away.”

The stranger cocked their head, furrowing their brow. “And what about what I want?”

“What do you want?”

“A pack,” replied the other simple. “I want a pack, because something far, far worse is coming, Seunghyun, and you won’t be able to protect your friends then if you can’t even get them away from me.”

Seunghyun blinked, confused. “What, so I should let you bite my friends so you can take them out fighting against your enemy?  Leave us alone.”

“Our enemy, Seunghyun.” The stranger seemed disappointed, but Seunghyun didn’t care. He just needed this man to get away from here forever and if it meant…

“What do you want from me? Join your pack? Fight for you?”

“Yes,” replied the man, grinning now, “you understand. Join my pack, and bring others to the pack. Or…”

“Or?” pressed Seunghyun, feeling worry ratchet up his spine.

“Or you and all your friends die,” said the stranger simply. “I’ll give you until the next full moon to make your choice. But… by then, it might be too late.”

With that, the stranger turned around on his heel and walked away, his scent suddenly masked from Seunghyun entirely. His keen ears picked up cheering coming from the distance and he suddenly remembered the scavenger hunt. It seemed so trivial now compared to the stranger leaving death threats for him.

He hurried across the field, leaving the strange man behind and saw a group of teenagers yelling and cheering. Seunghyun burst through the ring of people and saw Jiyong and Youngbae hoisting up a trophy, while Daesung and Seungri grinned and laughed. Daesung saw him first and waved, “over here! We won!”

Jiyong turned towards him, his hair a glorious purple in the light and he handed the trophy to Youngbae before rushing up to Seunghyun and clapping him on the shoulder. “You missed it! But cause of you, we won. Rubbed it in those north wing kids’ faces.” Vindication was a good look on Jiyong’s face.

“I’m glad,” grinned Seunghyun, though there was still twisting in his stomach.

Jiyong took a step back and seemed to see something when his face crumpled. “Seunghyun, you alright?”

“I – ”

They were already too involved. They already got hurt cause of him. He shouldn’t tell them, he shouldn’t, but – with Jiyong’s face so close to him, Seunghyun felt himself shake his head, his mouth open up and say, “I need to talk to you.”

Without a word, Jiyong threw his arms around Seunghyun’s neck and hugged him, and – suddenly – Seunghyun realized it was the comfort he needed after the mess of everything that was happening. He hugged Jiyong back – desperately, fingers clutched tight in the ridiculous bright waistcoat, his white hair drooping into his line of vision as he buried his face into the crook of Jiyong’s neck and in breath after breath.

There was something weird about Jiyong’s smell – half human, salt skin and hairspray and sweat and cologne, but an undertone of… of…

Still, he was too caught up in the hug to worry about it. Seunghyun held on tight, and felt Jiyong’s nails dig into the fabric on his back and it was grounding, it was what he needed, what he wanted, and – for the first time in a long time – Seunghyun felt like everything might actually be okay if Jiyong just stayed here with him.

-

A/N: sorry for the HUGE delay! I've been caught up with real life, taking summer school, trying to find a new place to move into - it's all been a mess, but I hope I get back into the hang of things. I'll reply to comments ASAP and I hope you enjoy this chapter! Looks like a normal school year was not what was planned. At all.